


Sixty Years of Black Canary

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Retrospective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-02
Updated: 2007-08-02
Packaged: 2017-12-08 07:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets of the original Dinah, Pre-Crisis</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sixty Years of Black Canary

_Introducing_

He knew good and well he had never seen a woman like her before, and somehow doubted he would ever know another like her.

She made Wonder Woman look downright clothed, wearing little more than the women in those picture postcards Ted kept around his locker. Johnny had seen bathing beauties who looked modest in comparison.

It wasn't the bustier, or even the fishnets. The little domino added its own touch of naughtiness, but it was…her.

She exuded something so mysterious, so mischievous that Johnny couldn't help but cook up half a dozen stories in his head for the hearts she must have broken.

It was just a matter of time before she'd break his, he decided, half in love when she fouled up one crook with a well-placed foot, and judo-chopped the other.

She might look naughty, might have pretended to be a crook to get in thick with the thieves, but this Canary was one bird flying high with heroes.

* * *

_And Love Walks In_

Larry Lance had never been a man to hesitate. He'd worked his way up in the Gotham Police Department on the strength of his honesty and bulldog tenacity. One or the other might have got him shunted to traffic cop, but together, he was too hard to ignore, no matter how corrupt the boys were getting.

It was easy enough for him to make up his mind, as he had from the first day Black Canary and he had cooperated on a case. He had known that day he would find out who she was. It had taken a little time, but when he found out she was Dinah Drake, who ran the flower shop right around the corner from his place, he had known it was fate for them to meet.

With that in mind, he had started courting her, sharing her nighttime adventures, never protesting if she saved his bacon, or rubbing it in if he had to help her out of a jam. She'd been such a sweetheart over the year they had known each other, and he felt it was time to move another step forward.

With the nerve and steady hand of his conviction, Larry waited for the JSA to come out of their headquarters, in the vestibule to their meeting room. As the doors opened, he walked forward, smiling at her laughter as Johnny clowned for her. Those two had grown close…but it was far more a sibling relationship, Larry had finally understood, halfway into the past year.

"Black Canary?" Larry called out, getting her attention. The entire group stopped, and she gave him a very fond look.

"Yes?"

"I hope you say that again," he said, smoothly falling to one knee, a ring proffered in one hand. "Marry me, beautiful bird?"

Dinah watched him with surprise, but their friends began clapping at his presentation and looking for her response.

"Larry Lance, if you're always this showy, our kids will be the next big hit on the airwaves!" She let him slip the ring on her finger. "Of course I'll marry you, you big lug."

Larry stood and claimed a kiss, to the thunderous cheers of the entire JSA.

* * *

_Baby Makes Three_

Dinah had been delighted to find out she was pregnant. It was what she and Larry needed, just as he was getting out of the police and they were looking forward to starting a joint private eye venture. 

Then the baby had started crying. And the sound of the cry had been nerve wracking, sometimes painfully so. At others, when it hit certain notes, the bottles Dinah had tried to use would shatter.

Larry had tried hard to find some way of keeping their daughter calm and quiet, but babies…babies naturally cried.

Neither Lance knew what to do, and turned to the JSA, looking for a miracle. The science of Hourman, the dreams of Sandman, and the wisdom of Dr. Fate proved incapable of providing a reason for the child's eerie cry.

In short, her teammates could give her no hope, no joy for the new life the couple had created.

All it took was Johnny, looking at the tear-streaked face of his best pals, and he knew he had to do something. "Ceiu, I wish they didn't have to suffer," he told the Thunderbolt.

The fifth dimensional imp took those words to heart, waiting until the time of sleep and rest. As the daughter of good friends took a rare sleep, the Thunderbolt wove his spell, locking her away in his realm, to age to a point where she could control her power, and mercifully took away all memory of her existence.

That satisfied Johnny's wish in every way as the imp saw it.

* * *

_When the Light Fades_

Alan always worried for his teammates, felt their losses as keenly as he had felt the loss of Rose. He worried hardest, right now, for Dinah, widowed too young.

Larry had been such a sturdy companion to her, a friend to the whole team. He had pitched in on so many cases, it was hard to think of the team's life in Gotham without him. That selflessness had gotten him killed, had taken the light right out of their free-spirited bird. She had not been the same since that fight, not even when the annual meeting with the JLA of the other world had begun.

Only…he watched more closely when the pairs came back into the Headquarters, saw that Dinah had her head bent ever so slightly toward the young Green Arrow, in a way that…

A smile touched Alan's lips. It was a start, if she could respond to the gallant flattery of the bowman. Perhaps she was not as lost to the light as Alan had feared.

* * *

_New Beginnings_

There were days when Dinah looked in the mirror and wondered how she had gotten so lucky in life. A rich, full experience on her native Earth, loved and cherished by the best man in Gotham had given her plenty of happy memories.

Then, on the heels of tragedy, the Thunderbolt had opened the gates of happiness again, rejuvenating her in body and shunting her to this world, where a new man had faithfully courted her. 

She occasionally still felt guilt, for her good fortune. Then Oliver would smile at her, take her dining and dancing, and all would be well again. She kept fighting alongside him, proving to herself time and again that she had earned this with every victory over the bad guys.

* * *

_All Things Must..._

It wasn't even their world, either of theirs. It was called Earth-S, and it was home to the Marvel family. Black Canary and Green Arrow weren't sure where their allies had gone, if they had fallen prey to the AntiMatter cloud or some other horror. They knew the world was fast freezing all around them. They knew there were far more villains than they could ever take.

She kept Crying, facing one way, and he kept firing arrows, facing the other.

Her voice would give way. His quiver would empty.

This Crisis would take them both, but at least…they would be together when it did. She would not have to survive another love, and know that emptiness again.


End file.
